NOTEBOOK : Great Outdoors Aids Marshall

Wendy Triplett discovered a novel way to prepare her Marshall High girls’ basketball team for last Friday’s City Section 3-A Division championship game at the Sports Arena.

After the earthquake shook Marshall’s aging cracker-box gym Thursday, Triplett moved practice outdoors.

“I didn’t want to die in there,” Triplett said of the Marshall gym. “But once we got outside, I said this is a great idea. I think that prepared them a little bit.”

The switch helped acclimate the Barristers to the uncomfortably wide-open feeling that high school teams often experience when they play in cavernous arenas.

Behind senior guard Laura Oki, who scored 18 points, Marshall won its second consecutive 3-A championship, defeating University, 45-32.

Marshall’s season came to an end Tuesday when the Barristers (24-4) suffered a 63-36 loss to Fresno Clovis West in a Division I quarterfinal game of the Southern California regional.

Add titles: The Ribet Academy boys’ team defeated St. Margaret’s of San Juan Capistrano, 68-60, Friday to win the Southern Section Small Schools title. Jacquin Moore had a game-high 23 points and Jrmirol Duncan had 19 points for the Fighting Frogs, who captured the school’s first Southern Section title.

On Tuesday, Ribet defated Firebaugh, 95-57, in a Division V quarterfinal of the Southern California regional.

The Fighting Frogs will play host to Faith Baptist, a 67-52 winner Tuesday over Calipatria, in a semifinal game tonight at 7:30.

Season-ender: The La Canada boys’ soccer team appeared to have its second consecutive Southern Section 1-A title in hand, holding a 1-0 lead going into the final 10 minutes of Saturday’s championship against Walnut at Gahr High.

“I felt like we were in good shape,” said La Canada sweeper Ross Allan, who gave the Spartans a one-goal lead with about 30 seconds left in the first half.

Walnut, however, scored a goal to send the game into overtime and went on to win, 3-1.

“We had our chances--near the end I had two headers,” said Allan, a two-time All-Southern Section player. “We had more shots on goal than they did.”

La Canada concluded its season 22-2-2. Walnut finished 19-8.

Close, but . . .: The Glendale College basketball team fell just short of advancing to the eight-team state tournament finals at UC Irvine when the Vaqueros lost an overtime game Saturday to Rancho Santiago, 86-84, in the Southern California regional.

Glendale finished 24-12.

“I think that the competition we played throughout the year was extremely good,” Coach Brian Beauchemin said. “At one point, we were 21-6. In that 21 wins were a lot of road victories that took a lot of effort. From that standpoint, it was really a great year.”

Down but not out: Pepe Reilly of Glendale finished 10th in the 119-pound division at the U. S. Boxing Federation Amateur National Championships last week in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Reilly, 18, lost a decision to Lionel Odom of New York, who finished second in the division.

Reilly, a senior at Hoover High, will begin preparations for the national Golden Gloves Championships that begin in April.

Qualifiers: Two more Occidental College athletes have qualified for the NCAA Division III track championships.

Pam Childs qualified in the long jump with an 18-foot 2-inch mark last weekend at Claremont in an SCIAC dual meet that was won by Occidental and included Claremont, Caltech and Pomona-Pitzer.

Heather Beach qualified in the triple jump with a mark of 37-2. Jenny Lawrence won three events: the 100 hurdles (16.10 seconds), high jump (5-2), and the javelin (117-4)

Brady Dargan won three men’s events: the shot put (44-6), discus (140-6) and hammer (163-6).

Better than average: Ethan Caldwell, point guard for the Occidental basketball team, has been selected to the GTE Academic All-American Team for Division 8, which includes West Coast schools.

Caldwell, a senior, averaged 12.4 points for the Tigers.

Farewell: Cal State Los Angeles track Coach John Tansley has announced his retirement effective at the end of the season. Tansley, in his sixth year at Cal State L.A., has led the Golden Eagles to four consecutive California Collegiate Athletic Assn. titles.

In 14 seasons at Glendale College, Tansley, 54, won four state cross-country championships and a state track title.

Kirby Lee contributed to this notebook.